What Is Creative Block?

Everyone, at some point or another has experienced creative block. Also known as writer’s block, art block or blank canvas syndrome — Creative block is when you set out to create, but only get as far as staring at a blank page with no idea of what to make.

It often starts out when you have an incredible amount of motivation, but you stall out when you can’t seem to find the inspiration that’s needed to create.

Creative block isn’t limited to a certain skill set, it happens to everyone from musicians, chefs, illustrators, animators and authors. Creative block doesn’t discriminate against gender, race, experience or income level. It’s equal in the pain that it causes.

So, why do creative blocks happen?

Creativity can be simply defined as the ability to make connections of 2 or more ideas. When you ask your brain to do something creative, it will sort through ideas like flipping through a file cabinet for a specific piece of information. Sometimes you know what file you’re looking for and sometimes… you’ll know it when you see it.

The thing about your brain is that it’s like the United States Library of Congress in there with thousands of shelves storing millions of books. When you experience creative block, it’s like you’re simply wondering the halls of your brain with the lights off.

Creative block happens for a number of different reasons, but there are a few things you can do to flip that light switch and start creating inspired work.

One thing that greatly helps with being creative quickly is by making or using a creative brief. Understanding what problem you’re trying to solve before making will help you get into the right area of your brain.

Where The Game of Creativity helps with this problem is that instead of trying to find the perfect file in your brain, it encourages you to test seemingly random files to see if it’s the right one for your creative project. While it might take a couple tries of playing before getting somewhere you’re happy with, it’s a whole lot better to try and fail than to keep wandering around the halls of your brain hoping the right file falls in front of you.

Creative block will happen, but it doesn’t have to last for very long. Give The Game of Creativity a try today.